


Voices, Take 3

by Dawn Cunningham (Delta_Dawn)



Series: Silliness [3]
Category: Adventure Inc., Farscape, Highlander: The Series, Planet of the Apes (TV), Stargate SG-1, The Sentinel
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-14
Updated: 2016-06-14
Packaged: 2018-07-14 23:19:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7195049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Delta_Dawn/pseuds/Dawn%20Cunningham
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The last bit of silliness. This was the last thing I finished. I have several works that I started and never finished. I had hoped by writing this I would get back in the swing of things. However it was not to be. </p>
<p>But you never know.... I may still rekindle the writing spark.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Voices, Take 3

Voices, Take Three by Dawn Cunningham

Disclaimers:

None of the characters mentioned in the story belong to me. I'm just borrowing them and not getting paid for it.

Do not post or publish this story anywhere else, without my express permission. Feel free to share it with others as long as the disclaimers remain intact. 

**********

Duncan MacLeod looked around at the various desks, trying to identify the person he was looking for. He'd only met the man one time, but when he saw the nameplate on the desk, he knew he'd found his man. He strode over to confront him.

Jim Ellison looked up from his computer, and stared at the man wearing a long trench coat who'd come to stand by his desk. The guy looked familiar, but he couldn't place him. "Can I help you?" he asked.

"I want to report a missing person," MacLeod replied.

"This is Major Crimes. We don't normally get involved with missing people," Jim pointed out. He was just about to direct the man to the appropriate department, when the other man spoke up.

"I thought you would be the best person for the job. After all, you know her, too."

Her? Jim couldn't think of any woman he knew who was missing. "Okay. What's her name?"

"Dawn Cunningham."

Jim surged to his feet in surprise. He looked around the room, but no one was paying any attention. He tapped on Blair Sandburg's shoulder, then pointed out the door. "Let's go somewhere private so we can talk openly about this," he suggested.

Ellison led the way to the closest interrogation room, opening the door, and waving the other two men inside.

"What's going on, Jim?" Blair asked, taking a seat at the table. He looked at the other man who was sitting down on the opposite side of the table. "Don't I know you from somewhere?"

"Duncan MacLeod. We met several years ago."

"Oh, right. You're one of those Immortals - Richie Ryan's friend, right?"

Duncan nodded.

Now Jim remembered. He'd met Ryan several times, and remembered him well. "Is Ryan involved?"

Duncan shrugged. "I don't think so, but he hasn't been around much lately. I think he got pretty upset when Dawn disappeared."

"Wait a minute," Blair burst out. "Dawn who?"

"Dawn Cunningham."

"Oh, no! How long has she been missing?" Blair turned to face Ellison. "Wasn't it just last year that we talked to her? You remember? The home invasion incident?"

Jim thought back. "Yes, I'm pretty sure it was just last year." He looked over at Duncan who was now studying him intently. "How long has it been since you've talked to her?"

"Maybe I've been blaming the wrong people," Duncan said, a suspicious tone to his voice. "You may be the last ones to have talked to her. Maybe you're the ones behind her disappearance."

"Wait a minute.... Are you saying it's been over a year since you've talked to her? Since Ryan has talked to her? She's always gone back to you when she was done with us. Not that we talked to her all that often."

Duncan nodded grimly. "She'd been hanging around some really tough people. I always thought she'd come back when she was ready, but now I'm beginning to think there's been some foul play."

"All right. Let's start reviewing the suspects. Who's at the top of the list?"

Suddenly, the room they were in seemed to evaporate, and they were standing on a dock near a large boat bearing the name Vast Explorer. 

"I've never met them, but I think she got involved with these guys for a while," Duncan said as he pointed toward the three people standing on the deck.

Ellison studied the trio. The first was a man in his early 40's, blond hair, and blue eyes. A little old for Dawn, but he thought she might be attracted. The next person was a female, probably late 20's, with long brown hair. The final person was in his early 20's, with brown, curly hair and brown eyes.

"He'd really be her type," Blair pointed out, looking at the younger man. "I bet she'd love to hurt him, and have the other two comfort him. Maybe they have her stashed somewhere."

Jim extended his hearing to search the boat. "There's only three on board."

Duncan stared at Ellison. "How do you know there's only three on board?"

Oops. He'd forgotten that MacLeod didn't know he was a Sentinel. "Let's go have a chat with them," he said as he headed up the gangplank, trying to avoid answering the question. "Jim Ellison, Cascade PD," he said showing his badge to the older man.

"Aren't you a little far from your jurisdiction?" the older man asked. "I'm Judson Cross, this is Gabe Patterson and MacKenzie Previn."

"I'm trying to find a missing friend. Rumor has it that you've been associating with her. Can you tell me the last time you talked to Dawn Cunningham?"

The three shifted slightly to move closer together. Almost like they were trying to protect each other. Yep, Dawn had been here.

"It's been a couple of years," Judson replied. "It was only that one time. While she didn't come out and actually say it, I got the feeling that she probably wouldn't be back."

Ellison was sure the guy was telling the truth. He'd even gone so far as to tune into the man's heartbeat, and respiration rates. Still, he had to ask the question. He sighed. "Any idea where she might have gone?"

The three exchanged glances. "I know she was hanging around with this guy who was into wormholes."

"John Crichton," MacLeod chimed in. "His Farscape module got sucked down a wormhole, into another universe. I know the guy."

"We'll check it out," Ellison promised. "Sorry to bother you."

"Let us know what you find out," Judson replied. "I wouldn't mind seeing her again."

Patterson and Previn stared at their friend like he'd lost his mind. 

"What?" Judson Cross asked, as he glared at his friends. "It's not like she actually *hurt* any of us. A little angst is good for the soul."

Ellison turned away, letting them continue to argue in peace. He waved Sandburg and MacLeod back down the gangplank. 

MacLeod turned to face him when they reached the dock. "That's it? That's all you're going to do?" he demanded. "They're exactly the kind of people who would hold Dawn's interest."

"We need to keep looking." He wasn't going to explain how he knew Cross wasn't lying. Now wasn't the time to go into how he was able to use his senses. "Let's go find this Crichton fellow." He led the way down the dock, trying not to act surprised to have it suddenly turn into the weirdest corridor he'd ever seen.

"This is Moya," MacLeod pointed out. "I've been here before. I think I know where to go." He shouldered his way to the front, and strode off down the passageway. Pretty soon he turned into a room.

"MacLeod, you're back!" John Crichton hurried over to greet the man. "Who's your friends? And where's Richie?"

MacLeod introduced the other two with him, then introduced the rest of the room.

Ellison studied the people. The one who had greeted MacLeod was a man in his late thirties, with brown hair and blue eyes. John Crichton was definitely Dawn's idea of a hunk, but the others? He could barely contain his shudder. D'Argo was obviously alien, with tentacles growing from his head. Chiana, was... well... gray. Rygel looked reptilian. Aeryn Sun was very good looking, but obviously only interested in Crichton. He couldn't see anything that would keep Dawn here. Still, if there was a romantic link between the two, the possibilities for hurt/comfort would be endless.

"I haven't seen Richie for a while, but we're really looking for Dawn Cunningham," MacLeod replied.

"Dawn? I haven't seen her since you and Richie and those Stargate guys were here," Crichton said. "I just figured she'd gone back with you guys. I keep hoping she'll come back - she left me hanging in a very bad place when Richie decided to interfere with my universe." He sighed. "But she said she really didn't like writing us. It's even documented on her webpage."

MacLeod nodded. "I saw the note too. I was disappointed because I thought I was going to get some new adventures."

Rygel zoomed up on his powersled. "She did tell Judy and Melanie that she liked writing Jack O'Neill," he pointed out. "Not that *I* see what the attraction is when she could be writing about *me*."

Crichton pushed Rygel aside. "She didn't like writing you at all, Sparky, but he does have a point. She *did* say she thought writing O'Neill was fun." He shuddered as if the concept of Dawn having fun while writing was something horrific.

MacLeod knew the feeling.

"Thanks," MacLeod said. "They may be a good place to look. I know she thinks Daniel is cute, although she doesn't read Stargate fanfic." He turned away, almost pushing Sandburg and Ellison in front of him. The two of them still appeared to be in shock over their first meetings with aliens.

"Let me know what you find out," Crichton yelled at them as they walked away.

MacLeod raised a hand indicating he'd heard as he kept on walking.

"Wait a minute," Blair suddenly protested. "I want to find out all about them."

"Not now," Ellison said, grabbing hold of the younger man's arm to keep him moving forward. If Blair got started, they'd be here for months. "What's that?" he asked as an arch that looked like it was filled with water suddenly appeared.

"That's the Stargate," Duncan replied. "Fastest way to find O'Neill and Jackson. Follow me."

"Cool!" Blair replied, bouncing up to the glowing object. He reached out one finger to touch the fluid surface. "How does it work?"

Duncan pushed him forward, then followed the younger man. Ellison watched them disappear from sight. He wasn't too sure about this. Who knew what his Sentinel senses would make of this? With a sigh, he stepped into the gate. A moment later, he was on the other side, looking down a ramp at a group of heavily armed Air Force personnel. 

"Stand down!" 

Jim looked up and spotted a tall, lean man standing in a room above them. The man turned away and disappeared from view. A few minutes later, a door to the room opened, and the man strode into the room accompanied by three other people. 

"MacLeod, what's the meaning of this?" he asked. "And who are these other people? Don't you remember this is a secret facility?"

That caught Jim's attention. A secret facility. What better place to hide someone?

"Sorry, O'Neill, but it's kind of an emergency. This is Jim Ellison and Blair Sandburg. They're cops. I'm sure they'll keep your secret. They've kept mine." He turned to the two men accompanying them. "This is Colonel Jack O'Neill," pointing to the man who was demanding answers, "Dr. Daniel Jackson," pointing to a younger man, "Major Samantha Carter and Teal'c." A man with a gold emblem on his forehead bowed slightly. "Can we talk in private?"

O'Neill frowned. "Base policy says you have to be checked over by a medical team first."

"We don't have time for that," MacLeod said. "Trust me on this, Jack."

"As long as we keep them isolated, we could probably forego the medical tests," Carter pointed out.

"Okay. The conference room is this way."

O'Neill led them down a corridor to a room with a large conference table in it. He waited until they were all seated before asking, "What's going on? Does this have something to do with Crichton?" It was the only time he'd ever had any dealings with MacLeod.

"Not exactly. We're trying to locate Dawn Cunningham," Duncan explained.

"We heard that she liked writing you, Colonel O'Neill," Blair pointed out.

Looking at the group, Jim had to wonder why. O'Neill didn't really seem like Dawn's type. The man was military, through and through. Now, he could see why Dawn might be attracted to Jackson though. Those blue eyes were a dead give-away. He was starting to see a pattern. Richie had blue eyes, too.

O'Neill smirked at his team mates. "She likes writing *me*," he said.

Daniel looked skeptical. "Really?"

"Indeed," Teal'c added, as he glanced over at O'Neill.

"We haven't seen Dawn since we all were on board Moya," Carter pointed out. "Based on her notes in the story, we didn't expect her back."

Daniel glanced over toward her. "Well, there were *those* rumors..." 

"What rumors?" O'Neill asked.

"I don't think we should go into it here," Carter replied, tilting her head slightly toward O'Neill. "Besides, they're only rumors."

"What rumors?" O'Neill asked again.

"Even if they are only rumors, it might give us a lead," Ellison pointed out.

"What rumors?" O'Neill demanded.

Carter sighed, stood up and went over to stand by the window looking down into the gate room. "There have been some changes here recently," she finally said. "I'm a Lieutenant Colonel now, O'Neill is a General, but he's seldom here. And there's two new team members." She nodded town toward the control room.

Ellison, MacLeod, and Sandburg joined her. "That's Crichton and Aeryn Sun!" MacLeod said. "They're full time members of SG-1 now?"

"No, that's Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell, and Vala Mal Doran."

"But...but... they look just like Crichton and Aeryn," Blair protested. 

"That's why there were rumors that Dawn was interested. She likes Cam."

"Cam? And you're called Sam? Who came up with that dumb idea?" Ellison asked, then shook his head. "Doesn't matter. But this is only rumor, right? He really hasn't talked to Dawn?"

"Well, if he has, we haven't heard about it," Daniel said, joining them. "I'm sure we would know about it by now."

Ellison had to admit that Dawn wouldn't ignore the rest of SG-1. He sighed. "Where do we go from here?"

"Well, there is one other group that I know about," MacLeod said. 

"Lead the way," Ellison said, gesturing for the Highlander to move.

As they left the conference room, the hallway slowly dissolved into a large meadow, bordered by trees. There were no buildings anywhere in sight.

"Who are we here to see?" Blair asked.

"Well, I've never met them, but their names are Pete Burke, Alan Virdon, and Galen," MacLeod answered.

A moment later two humans and a chimpanzee that was as large as a human, and dressed as a human, came running over the hill. They didn't even slow down as they approached the trio. "Run!" the blond-haired one called out, pointing toward the trees.

"What's going on?" Ellison demanded. "And what kind of monkey was that?"

"No time to explain," MacLeod said. "Run!" He pointed up the hill where a group of horseman had appeared. 

"Those are apes riding those horses!" Ellison said.

"I know. Run!" MacLeod took off after the other threesome. 

Ellison grabbed Sandburg's arm to get him started. He didn't know what was going on, but he figured if MacLeod said to run, that was what they should do.

They just barely made the tree-line before the horses were upon them. Jim followed MacLeod as he worked his way deeper into the forest. He could still hear the horses trying to follow them, but they were making very little headway.

It seemed like they ran forever, following the original threesome, when the blond called a halt in a small clearing. Ellison studied the man, noting the blue eyes, while he tried to regain his breath. The other human had curly brown hair and brown eyes.

"Those... those were apes!" Blair finally managed to stammer out. He pointed to the third newcomer. "He's an ape!"

"I'm a chimpanzee," Galen retorted. "Those were gorillas."

"How did you get here," Alan Virdon interrupted what could become a long explanation. "Your clothes are more like our time, than here. Did you come by spaceship? Is it close by?"

Ellison and MacLeod exchanged glances. "No. It's kind of hard to explain how we got here. We're trying to find Dawn Cunningham."

The dark-haired man turned pale, and the other two moved forward to stand between the strangers and their friend. Dawn had been here! But this really blew Jim's theory about blue eyes.

"We haven't seen her for several years," Alan finally stated. 

"And that's just fine by me," Pete added in.

"Do you have any idea where she went to after she left here?" Ellison asked.

The three exchanged looks. "No, I'm sorry," Alan said.

"Now what, Jim?" Blair asked.

"Any other ideas?" Ellison asked MacLeod.

"Well, there is one other place... but I got this from Amanda, and I don't know whether she was lying or not. She does have an aptitude for exaggeration. It just didn't seem like a place Dawn would go to."

"At this point, we have to give it a shot. We're running out of places to search."

"All right." MacLeod turned back into the forest, which slowly morphed into a old west town.

"Here?" Ellison asked, sneezing several times as the dust rose when a wagon pulled by horses passed by.

"Dial it back, Jim," Blair said, moving up to stand by his Sentinel. He looked around the small town. "Where do we start searching?"

"When I lived in this time period, the saloon was always a gathering place. Let's try there," MacLeod suggested.

He led the way down the boardwalk, and through the swinging doors. He wasn't quite sure who they were looking for, so he gestured the other two over to an empty table. Once seated, he looked at the other two men. "Any idea who might have grabbed her attention here?"

Ellison and Sandburg studied the other occupants. 

"Wait a minute," Blair suddenly burst out. "Isn't that the guy from the boat?" he asked pointing at a table with seven men sitting at it.

Ellison studied the men sitting at the table. The one that Blair had pointed out was dressed in black. There was those blue eyes again. "It sure looks like him, but this is over a hundred years earlier. It can't be the same guy."

"I bet he's the attraction though."

Ellison studied the other six men. "There are a couple others at the table who might draw her attention. The guy dressed in the fancy clothes, playing with the deck of cards, for instance. He must be a gambler, and I know Dawn likes to go to casinos." He decided to ignore the fact that the guy had green eyes. "And the long-haired one, too."

"The scruffy one?" Blair and MacLeod burst out together.

"Yes, the scruffy one."

"I vote for the guy with the mustache," MacLeod said, as he watched the man smile at the barmaid who'd just brought over a tray of drinks.

"I don't think so," Sandburg said. "He's too easy going. She tends to go for the ones with troubled souls."

That was it. Ellison knew these were the right men. Three of those men had hidden pain in their eyes - the man in black, the scruffy one, and the gambler. "Let's go talk to them." He stood up and headed over to the other table.

The man in black studied him for several moments before asking, "Can I help you?"

"We're looking for Dawn Cunningham," Ellison stated, refusing to back down from the challenge in the other man's eyes. "We think she's been here."

"Yep," the scruffy one replied. "She was here."

"Quite some time ago," the gambler stated, with a southern drawl. "She left us in quite a predicament. It was simply unconscionable."

"Yep. T'weren't nice, either," added the scruffy one.

"Now, I wouldn't mind if she came back for a visit," the mustached one chimed in. "She seemed real nice."

The man in black just rolled his eyes. "She's not here. Go away."

"Let's go, Jim," Sandburg said, tugging at the Sentinel's arm.

With great reluctance, Ellison followed his friend out of the saloon. MacLeod came out next.

"I think this is the answer," Blair stated excitedly. "She's drawn to those men, but they can't be easy to write. The one sounds like he's swallowed a dictionary. The other two don't say very much. You'll notice the other three in the group didn't even say anything. She needs input to write! Plus, she has no experience with this time period."

"You could be right, Sandburg," Ellison said. "Maybe we should look around some more. She might be here somewhere, trying to get their attention."

Just then, the youngest of the seven men came out of the saloon. "Oh, hi," he greeted them. "I'm JD Dunne. I might have an idea where Dawn might have gone."

"Where?" MacLeod asked eagerly.

"I can take you there," he said, turning to start down the street. It turned into a driveway leading up to a ranch house. 

"Buck! Buck! We've got company!" 

Ellison was surprised to see that the young man had turned into a five-year-old boy. They were in a new time period too, based on the black Dodge Ram parked in front of the house. This must be an alternate universe.

A tall, mustached man came out of the house, picked up JD, and watched as the three men approached. "Hi! Can I help you?"

A blond-haired man carrying another boy joined him on the porch. Ellison only needed one look at the old eyes on the seven-year-old to see why Dawn would have been here. That and the fact that the two men looked just like the ones from the old west. But how much hurt could she - would she - do to a young child?

"We're trying to locate Dawn Cunningham. Have you seen her lately?"

The tall man paled, and each boy snuggled up to the man who carried them. "She was here, for a while, but she hasn't been back for a long time."

"She hurt Buck," JD announced angrily. "I don't want her to come back!"

The other boy nodded, his blue eyes brimming with tears.

Ellison exchanged glances with MacLeod. These boys didn't need an interrogation, or a reminder that someone like Dawn might come back to visit. "Sorry to bother you." He turned and headed back down the driveway.

A moment later, they were back in the interrogation room.

"I'm out of ideas," Ellison said with a sigh. "That group in the old west seem like the best suspects, but I don't know where to go from here. We need some kind of proof!"

"Could Dawn be hanging around with any other immortals?" Blair asked. "Like Amanda? Or the one who's 5000 years old?"

"I don't think so. And I'm sure Richie would have told me if she'd contacted him. She always puts us together." 

"Blair, why don't you get on the Internet? See if you can find any trace of her."

"Sure, Jim." Blair stood up and left the room.

"Why don't we go out and get some food?" MacLeod suggested. "We could bring it back here and see what Blair has found."

They spent several minutes deciding on what to eat, then left.

When they returned, carrying bags of Chinese take-out, they found Blair staring at a computer, tears rolling down his face.

"What's wrong, Blair?" Jim asked, worried that his friend was so upset.

"I found her, Jim."

"You did? Where?" MacLeod demanded. "She's not dead, is she?"

"No, it's worse than that. Look!" Blair pointed at his computer screen.

The two other men looked at the computer, but didn't understand what they were seeing. At the top of the screen there was a little man, who kept getting burned to ashes by a fire, then reappearing.

"Is he immortal?" MacLeod asked. "I can't sense him. How does he come back like that?"

"It's worse than that! He's a computer character. He dies in at least six different ways! And that's only in this room. Who knows how many other ways he dies?"

"What is this?" Ellison asked.

"It's a computer game site called Pogo! She's become addicted to it. They have these weekly challenges which is bad enough, but now they've added these things called premium challenges. At first they appeared once in a while, but the newest thing is something called mix-n-match, which adds new challenges each month. And when she's not doing that, she's working on getting rank badges."

"There must be an end in sight! Look, she's at rank 29 of 30. She must be almost done." Ellison couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Are you kidding me? There's 44 games with rank badges - she's only finished 19 of them. They keep coming up with new ones all the time. Just this week, they've added two new games alone!"

"We have to do something," MacLeod stated firmly. "Otherwise, this could go on forever!"

"We need to hire de-programmers!" Blair suggested. "Lock her up until she gets her mind back in the right place!"

"That may be hard to do," Ellison said, trying to think of another suggestion.

"Maybe if we could get rid of her Internet connection?" MacLeod offered.

"Then she wouldn't be able to post any of her stories," Blair pointed out. "But maybe we can get rid of her high-speed connection. Make her go back to dial-up. I bet she'd have a hard time playing those games that way."

"That's a good idea. Still, I think we need to attack this from several ways. We either need Ryan to get back here and start talking to her, or someone needs to get those guys in that saloon to open up more. MacLeod, why don't you try to handle those? Ryan will listen to you more than he would anyone else. And you've lived in that old west time period. You can fit in."

"I can try talking to Richie, too," Blair said. "I think we got along pretty well, and I *am* closer to his age. Although I don't see why we need either of them, Jim. If we can just get Dawn off the game site, we could keep her occupied." 

Ellison looked hopeful at that idea, although he knew it would mean at least angst, if not hurt. Still, her last story had been more of a comedy, with just a little bit of angst to keep the plot interesting.

"Maybe we all need to start talking to her again," MacLeod suggested.

"No!" Blair said. "I think she'd be sooooo overwhelmed. That may even have been what turned her off to start with. It must have been awful to have all those different people trying to talk to her at the same time. She may have just needed a break."

"We can only hope," MacLeod said. "Are you going to work on the Internet connection?"

"I'll give it a shot," Ellison said. "It probably won't be easy."

"So, everyone understands their assignment?" MacLeod asked. When the other two nodded, he shook their hands, and headed out the door. First stop, find Richie. Or maybe he should get Amanda to head out to that little town. She'd probably consider it a challenge to lead someone in that group astray.

The End... for now...

TV shows, in order of appearance:

Highlander - Duncan MacLeod 

Sentinel - Jim Ellison and Blair Sandburg 

Adventure Inc. - Judson Cross, Gabe Patterson, Mackenzie Previn 

Farscape - John Crichton, Rygel, D'Argo, Aeryn Sun, Chiana 

Stargate, SG1 - Jack O'Neill, Daniel Jackson, Teal'c, Samantha Carter, Cameron Mitchell, Vala Mal Doran 

Planet of the Apes - Pete Burke, Alan Virdon, Galen 

Magnificent 7 - Chris Larabee, Vin Tanner, Ezra Standish, etc.


End file.
